Take 5: May 2021

In anticipation of the NAFSA 2021 Annual Conference & Expo, which will take place June 1–4, this month’s Take 5 features recommendations from members of NAFSA’s 2021 Annual Conference Committee (ACC). It sounds like ACC members have had books on the brain recently! This month’s roundup includes books on mindful travel, trauma, antiracism, ikigai, and White fragility.

Have a recommendation for your international educator colleagues? Email us with your ideas—we might include them in an upcoming issue of International Educator.

1. Beyond Guilt Trips: Mindful Travel in an Unequal World by Anu Taranath

“This book is a toolkit for using travel and connecting with others outside of our cultures as a means to ‘unpack our baggage about who we are, where we come from, and how much we have.’ It poses thoughtful questions that can help navigate the uncomfortable reality of unfair systems and inequality in the world. This is a must-read for anyone who wants to think more deeply about mindful travel as an opportunity to build the ‘politics of care.’”

—Sandi Janusch, PhD, University of Washington, ACC 2021 Workshop Chair

2. First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung

“I recently took a workshop with the author. Hearing her firsthand account of the trauma she experienced and the strengths she found in herself to survive was inspiring. She had us do a writing exercise in which she asked us to think about a trauma we had survived. The exercise was